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TODAY´S NEWS

ICC CWC'11: Reliance aims BIG bucks from Big Cup

While all eyes are on Team India, fans are soaking in the sights and sounds of Dhaka and the grand opening ceremony featuring singer Bryan Adams, among others, partnerships and handshakes made months in advance are now in full view.

One of the long term sponsors with ICC is Direct-to-Home (DTH) service provider Reliance Digital TV (RDTV). With this pact, RDTV acquired the rights to telecast ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in High Definition.

Simply acquiring rights to the event are not enough as there are other players that will be showcasing the event in HD such as Tata Sky and DishTV, while Airtel DTH is the official associate sponsor for the event. Speaking on RDTV’s plans, Sanjay Behl, Chief Executive Officer, Reliance Digital TV, said, “It is our constant endeavour to offer an unparalleled television viewing experience to our subscribers. With our range of services launched especially keeping in mind the most awaited ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, subscribers are definitely in for superlative digital TV viewing experience. With the launch of Day & Night support service, we promise our subscribers complete customer support at their doorsteps till the midnight hour.”

Big Benefits
Another perk of being a long term partner with ICC is that 92.7 BIG FM is the obvious official choice for the radio partnership for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. As the official radio partner, starting from February 7 to April 4, the station will provide its listeners with live cricket action live match updates, detailed match analysis and contests. Since cricket and Bollywood are synonymous with entertainment in India, as part of its promotion, 92.7 BIG FM will engage and entertain its listeners with an innovative campaign called ‘Bollywood meets Cricket’.

As the event begins, the radio station will introduce RJ and stand-up comedian Udham Singh, who will comment on the preparation of the team before every match, along with pre- and post-match analysis. Prior to every match, listeners can tune in to specially designed shows such as ‘Pitch Report’, ‘Astro Prediction’, ‘Weather Report’ and ‘Team Profiles’. Commentators such as Arun Lal and Charu Sharma will also come on air to provide expert comments during the match and explain finer details on the World Cup 2011.

92.7 BIG FM will bring the cricketing action alive on-ground by playing ‘Power Cricket’ in Tier I and Tier II cities. Players can participate for the on-ground activities by answering the right question of their favourite Bollywood superstar and can win on the spot movie tickets. The radio station also has lined up a host of activities on their cricket microsite, where listeners can register, choose their favourite team and play the game of ‘Bollywood ka World Cup’ online.

BIG Street, RBNL’s out-of-home arm, will add to the overall group offering by projecting an online game on LED screens, wherein people around the LED screens can also get a chance to play the innovative game.

Soumen Ghosh Choudhary, Business Head, 92.7 BIG FM, said, “To deliver the best of coverage to the country, 92.7 BIG FM has tied up with ICC World Cup 2011 as the official radio partners for the mega event. We have gone a step further to give listeners an ICC experience like never before by bringing together the two biggest passions of Indians – cricket and Bollywood – with an campaign called ‘Bollywood ka World Cup’. To truly make this property BIG, we will leverage our group strengths through massive promotions across 45 stations of 92.7 BIG FM, online and digital marketing across key social networking sites and video diaries, through the line communication with OOH, print, cinema, on-ground, hangouts, et al in key markets. We will also be setting up a unique IVRS opportunity for our listeners where they can get live commentary of all matches on their mobile phones.”

Banking on the length of the matches and the lure of mobility that radio as a medium offers to viewers to tune in and out when desirable, it will be interesting to note how radio viewership is impacted or the tangible benefits that an official partnership can grant a radio network.